Our February Instructor Spotlights are Amanda McClendon and Lauren DuBois. Amanda and Lauren are leading Cleaning Up from A to Z: How One Library Tackled Its Database List on Tuesday, February 25 from 2 - 3 p.m. EST.
In this session, they will share how Rice University's Fondren Library has been looking at improving its A-Z list on the Springshare platform. This process has included evaluating and curating its content and navigation, establishing guidelines for inclusion, and reconfiguring subject tags. They will share their process and recommendations.
Amanda McClendon is the Senior Electronic Resources Librarian at Fondren Library, Rice University, where she leads the acquisition, maintenance and technical support of the library’s electronic collections.
Lauren DuBois is a Metadata Analyst at Fondren Library, Rice University, where she specializes in the creation, maintenance and enhancement of metadata for a wide range of library resources.
We recently chatted with Amanda and Lauren as part of our Instructor Spotlight Series to learn more about the upcoming session.
Your class will focus on database cleanup and streamlining, ultimately helping students, researchers and patrons access and locate what they are trying to find more easily and efficiently. This was quite an endeavor. What was the catalyst for tackling this issue? What made you decide to clean up and reorganize?
AM: I had done a similar (though not as extensive) project at a previous organization, and the general messiness of our A-Z list here was one of the first things I noticed when I got hired. My current library is lucky to be able to purchase and subscribe to a lot of resources, but that also means we're responsible for maintaining and organizing all of it, and this felt like a good project to tackle toward that end.
Since the cleanup, have you seen increased usage and more satisfaction amongst your users?
AM: The jury's still out! We're still actually in the process of cleanup and don't have a good before-and-after comparison yet. I at least feel like it's already less cluttered, personally, but I'd love to do an eventual postmortem on this project. Stay tuned!
During the process, was there an a-ha moment or a pivot?
LD: One turning point came in our second or third meeting when we realized we couldn’t address the over- or under-representation of subject areas in our databases without first inventorying terms and tagging resources accurately. Some areas seemed overrepresented, but inconsistent tagging was likely the issue. That’s when we decided to examine how peer institutions named and tagged their subjects.
AM: Another was the realization that in our platform, A-Z list items affected some of our research and subject guides, and having to communicate that to our subject selectors so they could adjust accordingly.
Without giving away any spoilers, what do you hope participants take away from this class?
AM: I think this is a topic a lot of librarians are thinking about, and I hope that we help people ask the right questions about their own database lists. Obviously, everyone's situation and needs are different, but we all have the potential to make these resources easier to navigate for our patrons, and therefore get more use out of what are often high-dollar purchases.
For fun, what are you reading, listening to or watching?
LD: I’m thrilled to be watching the new season of Severance. We’ve waited three years since the 2022 Season 1 cliffhanger!
AM: I just started the new season of Squid Game and it is A LOT. I'm also trying to catch up with the Best Picture nominations before this year's Oscars.